What's up, baseball players.
I'm Coach Dan Blewett I'm a former pro pitcher.
In today's video, we're going to talk about the best Curveball locations
that you need to master to be at your best.
All right.
So before we get going,
if you're looking for how to throw a curveball
if you need to improve your curveball,
check out the links in the description below.
I have basically the number one video
here on YouTube about how to actually throw a curveball.
Today, we're going to talk about Curveball locations
but obviously improving ears, making it sharper,
making it more deceptive and getting just the technique right,
especially if you're a younger pitcher is really important.
So look for my how to throw a curveball video in the description below.
So today we're gonna talk about Curveball
locations, which once you get the hang of throwing a curveball, well,
the mastery of where you throw it is really,
really pivotal because you've all watched in a Major League Baseball game.
Guy throws a curveball, breaks right down the center of the plate.
Dude hits it into the bleachers, like 85 rows deep.
And so it doesn't matter how sharp your curveball is,
if you don't locate it, well, you're not you're going to eventually get to
this point where hitters don't really mind you throwing it.
So don't minimize the quality of your curveball because of bad location quality.
So there's three
main locations that you want to look for, and I'm going to overlay them here
using the magic of the of the Internet and video.
But the first location is breaking into the zone for a called strike.
And let me define this thing first, which is the starting versus ending location.
So as a pitcher, the way you locate your curveball
is by choosing a visual starting location
and then throwing it for that, knowing that your curveball is going
to break a certain amount and make it to the ending location.
So what
that means is if you're trying to hit my mid here
and your curveball breaks this much you're going to aim for my nose
and try to start it there so that it breaks to my glove.
That's how that works.
Now, if your curveball has more lateral breaks, it's more like a 17
you're going to start and you want it to end up
right down the middle of the strike zone.
You're not going to aim for my nose because if it starts on my nose,
it's going to break over here.
So you might aim for my ear or you know, the side of the catcher's mask,
knowing that there's some lateral break you have to account for.
So the starting location is very different than the ending location.
And so effectively you have to know how your curveball breaks, like how much
and what the direction of break is.
It's either going to be like this or like that.
And so once you say, OK, this is my typical curveball
this is where I want it to end up, therefore I have to start it
X amount higher and to the side or whatever to get it to go to that location.
And so visually,
when you see your favorite pitcher on TV throwing a curveball for a called strike,
he's starting it for the catcher's mask and then it's breaking to the middle.
He's not trying to throw it at the mid because it would break into the dirt
that point.
So in this video, I'm going to put a green dot representing the starting point
and a blue dot representing the ending point.
So the three locations that I'm talking about
are the ending locations
where we want the pitch to cross the strike zone
and where a hitter would make contact with it.
So I just want to make sure you understand the difference in those two,
because when I say location I mean the ending location,
but that's not where you would look and try to start the pitch
since it has break on it.
So the first location is down the middle and this is just to give yourself
more margin for error.
Now, when you throw a pitch down the middle,
your goal is always to have it at the bottom of the strike zone.
So you're never going to intentionally throw a curveball for the belt
though you might there sometimes and you'll get a take sometimes you'll get a
where you're at home or other times.
But in general, if you're throwing something down the middle,
you would like it to be the very bottom border of the strike zone.
So like just below the kneecap. Right?
But when you're trying to throw a for a called strike like 002021311.
So any time you're even are behind, you're you're typically going to choose
to throw your curveball down the middle of the plate.
Now, that's important because this goes back to margin for error.
And I'll put a link in the description below about my video about that.
But margin for error means how much room do you give yourself to miss
and still do the job, which is to throw called strike on the first pitch.
If you're throwing it down the middle, you don't want
I mean, you want them to swing
because if they swing in the first pitch curveball, they're kind of dumb.
But B, you're aiming down the middle to give yourself the best chance
of getting it called strike.
If you aim for the very corner on the black,
if you missed even by two inches away, it's going to be a ball
and that's not what you want. You want to get ahead with it.
So you're going to throw down the middle when you're even or behind
or the first pitch, which is obviously an even count.
So the next location and this is the hardest location
and this is something that might take
you ten more years to master depending on how old you are.
I've never fully mastered it, to be quite honest is the one to or 01 pitch.
So this is the one where I want we contact
and I want to be a borderline ball strikes on the outer part of the plate.
So this is going to sort of
like when they get on their front foot, they're going to have this.
But out swing and they're going to make contact like this.
And this is different because I don't really want them to swing
and miss and I do want them to strike out if they take it.
That's the difference when I'm one, two or 01, I'm
not really as much hunting for a strikeout in most situations, really.
I just want the bat to be over with because
01, I get a two pitch out on one and two, I get a four pitch out.
You don't want a bass dragging on four, five, six, seven pitches.
So if you're not a two, you should go for a location
where it's going to be somewhat democratic,
where they could put it in play,
but they're not going to hit it hard if you make it well-located
or if they take it, they're going to probably strike out.
And that's a good, obviously a good result, too.
So. Oh, one or one, two, if you're throwing a curveball,
you want it for the bottom border of the strike zone and the outside border.
So on the outside corner, like blowing away.
Now the next location is also probably pretty obvious if you're kind of
checking off what might be left, and that is bouncing a curveball.
And this is important.
There's not just you don't just bounce it 46 feet away.
Your goal should be to balance it on the point of the plate.
And at
worst, it's probably going to be about six inches in front of the plate.
Now, you've seen hitters
sometimes swing and miss it, a curveball that bounces almost in the grass,
and that happens.
But you'll get the most swings and misses.
It is between about six inches in front and the point
and the reason that we want to throw our curveball six inches in front or
as far back as the point is because it's going to look like a strike the longest
and yet still dip beneath the strike zone by time they swing.
If it would bounce back here, it's going to be in the air when it crosses
the plate.
Therefore, it's not really a strikeout pitch.
So let me define what a strikeout pitches. A strikeout pitch
is when the only two results
are it's a ball or it's a strikeout or maybe a foul ball.
So we don't want to throw an 02 curveball that they could put in play.
We want it to be zero sum.
It's either a ball or it's a strikeout that's our goal
because 02, you've done so much working ahead of them.
They don't deserve to put the ball in play because when they put the ball in place,
some percentage of the time it's going to be a blooper it's going to be a swing,
but it's going to squeak through the infield after taking 19 hops.
So when you're 02, it makes good sense to eliminate all that bad
luck and try for the strikeout and if you're trying first strike out,
that means if they do swing at it, they can't possibly hit it.
And so that means it needs to bounce, but it can't bounce so late that
it's essentially still going to be in the air.
But if it bounces so early, it stops looking at it like a strike very early.
So six inches in front to the point of the plate is your focus.
And this is easy.
This is actually an easy location because if you aim at the catcher's mitt
as your starting point,
when you
catch that curveball and pull it down, it's going to be in the dirt.
It's going to be at the point
or it's going to be in the dirt in front of the plate.
So this is an easy location because your visual starting point
is very easy to to grab hold of all you have to do is look at the mitt,
try to throw it at the mitt and let it break into the ground.
Same thing with with the first pitch, the oh or behind count curveball
when you're going to throw it down the middle
pretty much you look at the catcher's mask.
If you start it for that, it's going to break into the middle of the strike zone.
That's a good thing.
The other location down here is hard
and that's because you have to try to find the balance of it being in between them.
You can't just like hammer it and pull it into the ground.
And if you ease off it too much, which I don't recommend using off it at all,
then it's going to be up a hang up in the strike zone.
So to find this really narrow strikes,
this narrow location for the 0112 curveball, it's tough.
And again, I will freely admit I had a really sharp curveball.
I never mastered this location.
I couldn't hit it reliably. It's very hard.
I could bounce them and I could throw them for cold strikes to a lesser extent,
but it's tough.
And this is why learning how to throw a curveball the right way,
spending a lot of time perfecting it, using the right grip,
all that stuff that's really important because the better
you are throwing the pitch and the more reliable the spin is,
the more you can hit these locations more, more readily and consistently.
And that's what makes your curveball really great.
If you have the nastiest curveball in the world, but you only bounce it,
hitters are going to stop swinging at it, and now you don't have a curveball.
So that's why this is important.
So if you only master two of these locations, let it be
the one you can throw for a called strike and the one that you bounce.
And that'll be enough, I promise you.
I mean, I made it pretty, pretty far in baseball.
With just those two locations for the most part.
So you can, too.
So hopefully this video was helpful.
Obviously, Curveball locations.
This is such a critical piece of the puzzle.
It's not just how you throw it.
It's not just the speed and the RPMs.
It's where you throw it and your strategy
and your consistency and getting called strikes with it.
All right.
Thanks again for watching. I'm Coach Dan.
I'll see you here in the next video.